Team Foundation Server enables great teams to do great work by recognizing that all of the work involved in a software project - source code, issues, and requirements to name a few - is symbiotically related, no matter what form it happens to take.

Team Foundation Server is a workflow collaboration engine that enables the use of a team's customized process, as well as a centralized data warehouse that collects real-time intelligence on project history.

Team Foundation Server, along with the rest of Visual Studio Team System, brings together the core roles that are part of the software development process.

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Rated 5 out of 5 by Stephen Olner from Increased productivity and reduced our times to market by 60%.​Valuable Features:Project Management. Agile and Code development can now work side by side in the same solution.This speeds up development, as developers do not need to be swapping applications to update and develop at the same time.Improvements to My Organization:TFS increased productivity and reduced our times to market by 60%.Room for Improvement:The product needs to stay competitive with its peers like Github, and the adoption of other markup language renderings in the code section of TFS ( https://www.itcentralstation.com/products/tfs ).Use of Solution:10 years.Stability Issues:I didn't encounter any issues with stability.Scalability Issues:I didn't encounter issues with scalability.Technical Support:If you have premier support, then the support is excellent. We get a response within four hours of placing a ticket.Previous Solutions:I did not use a different solution prior to using TFS.Initial Setup:Simple, out of the box.The only area that takes time is creating builds and release pipelines.Pricing, Setup Cost and Licensing:It's free with MSDN (Microsoft Developer Network).Other Solutions Considered:We have looked at Github, JIRA ( https://www.itcentralstation.com/products/jira ), and RallyOther Advice:Team Foundation Server is an enterprise ALM tool ( https://www.itcentralstation.com/categories/application-lifecycle-management-alm-suites ) , not just for developers.It’s come a long way in 10 years and Gartner recently rated it higher than any other product in its category, so it's worth a look.Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

Date published: 2017-07-19

Rated 4 out of 5 by Ra l Lendinez lvarez from We use it to perform Continuous Integration, making build operations each night and increasing quality process to prevent code regressions.Valuable Features:In our company, we develop software applications. With TFS we can manage the whole application lifecycle with a single product, and it is visible for all the team members.Improvements to My Organization:I can point to two basic improvements:* The project management. Before TFS, we used Microsoft Project and Excel to manage project tasks and release dates (only the Project Manager could do this). Since we adopted Scrum as a part of software development, we needed an agile tool to perform this task. TFS it is a great tool to manage Agile projects because the whole team is kept up to date with TFS burn down charts, release dates and so on, so we eliminated the need for Project.* We can use TFS to perform Continuous Integration, making build operations each night. This increases quality process and prevents code regressions.Room for Improvement:Continuous integration in most of .NET developments (web and desktop applications) is ease to configure. But in case of other kind of developments (SharePoint or Xamarin) is not so easy, you have to spend a lot of time making customizations. It would be nice to have some integrations tools for this kind of projects.Use of Solution:I've used it for one year.Deployment Issues:No issues encountered.Stability Issues:No issues encountered.Scalability Issues:No issues encountered.Customer Service:We could find all the required information in Microsoft’s online support (websites, blogs etc.), so I can’t rate the customer service for this product.Previous Solutions:We used TFS 2010. We don’t evaluate any other product because we only use Microsoft products.Initial Setup:For our needs, we choose a basic configuration, one single server. In our case it was easy to set up the whole system.Implementation Team:In-house. We have the required people to set up the product on our own, in some cases, it is better to call a vendor team.Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:Microsoft Partners

Date published: 2016-10-17

Rated 4 out of 5 by Raúl Lendinez Álvarez from We use it to perform Continuous Integration, making build operations each night and increasing quality process to prevent code regressions.Valuable Features:In our company, we develop software applications. With TFS we can manage the whole application lifecycle with a single product, and it is visible for all the team members.Improvements to My Organization:I can point to two basic improvements:* The project management. Before TFS, we used Microsoft Project and Excel to manage project tasks and release dates (only the Project Manager could do this). Since we adopted Scrum as a part of software development, we needed an agile tool to perform this task. TFS it is a great tool to manage Agile projects because the whole team is kept up to date with TFS burn down charts, release dates and so on, so we eliminated the need for Project.* We can use TFS to perform Continuous Integration, making build operations each night. This increases quality process and prevents code regressions.Room for Improvement:Continuous integration in most of .NET developments (web and desktop applications) is ease to configure. But in case of other kind of developments (SharePoint or Xamarin) is not so easy, you have to spend a lot of time making customizations. It would be nice to have some integrations tools for this kind of projects.Use of Solution:I've used it for one year.Deployment Issues:No issues encountered.Stability Issues:No issues encountered.Scalability Issues:No issues encountered.Customer Service:We could find all the required information in Microsoft’s online support (websites, blogs etc.), so I can’t rate the customer service for this product.Previous Solutions:We used TFS 2010. We don’t evaluate any other product because we only use Microsoft products.Initial Setup:For our needs, we choose a basic configuration, one single server. In our case it was easy to set up the whole system.Implementation Team:In-house. We have the required people to set up the product on our own, in some cases, it is better to call a vendor team.Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:Microsoft Partners

Date published: 2016-02-12

Rated 4 out of 5 by Jim Roth from It has built-in validation for most implementation steps, however it needs change control for build definitions.Valuable Features:* Source code management* Branch/merge tools* Build capabilities* Work item tracking* Scrum board managementImprovements to My Organization:We've reduced production deployment rollbacks 100%.Room for Improvement:Build definition management - there needs to be change control for build definitionsUse of Solution:I've used it for 10 years.Deployment Issues:It's a long upgrade process, but works fine.Stability Issues:No issues encountered.Scalability Issues:No issues encountered.Customer Service:8/10Technical Support:8/10Previous Solutions:No previous solution was used.Initial Setup:It was straightforward. It's mostly wizard-driven, with plenty of built-in validation for most steps.ROI:Virtually immeasurable. The low cost of the product is nothing compared to the productivity improvements it brings.Cost and Licensing Advice:Size accordingly. Not every shop needs every feature.Other Solutions Considered:Size accordingly. Not every shop needs every feature.Other Advice:Recognize the fact that TFS isn't just a source code management tool. It's an application lifecycle management tool that covers all facets of software project management as well as development, deployment, and production support.Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

Date published: 2015-08-17

Rated 4 out of 5 by Mahmoud Nasr El-Din from It provides us with project analysis from scratch and enables us to create a requirements document for maintenance.Valuable Features:* project Life cycle* Bug tracking** Creating test cases* Executing test casesImprovements to My Organization:As i'm an Software Quality Engineer It's a helpful product because you can provide project analysis from scratch and create a requirements document for maintenance. Also, it creates a strong relation between developers and testers that allows communication between them through analysis, design, implementation and testing, tracking bugs, bugs report, sitting severity and priority and discuss each issue with developer acc. to requirement document.Room for Improvement:I don't know of any areas that need improvement.Use of Solution:I've used it for over a year.Deployment Issues:No issues encountered.Stability Issues:No issues encountered.Scalability Issues:No issues encountered.Previous Solutions:No previous solution was used.Initial Setup:It was straightforward. You can learn how to do it through self-study.Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

Date published: 2015-08-14

Rated 4 out of 5 by Ali Abu Fkhideh from We used TFS to force some policies to control the project documentation and source controlling, but the admin tools need to be easier to use.Valuable Features:* Source Controlling* Application Development* Project Life CycleImprovements to My Organization:When we applied the CMMI standards in our SDLC we used TFS to force some policies to control the project documentation and source controlling, and to manage the relationship between concerned parties.Room for Improvement:TFS administration tools need to be more controlled and easier to use.Use of Solution:I've used it for a total of seven years, and for the last threeyears, I have used it more as a TFS administrator not only as an end user.Deployment Issues:No issues encountered.Stability Issues:No issues encountered.Scalability Issues:No issues encountered.Previous Solutions:Yes in 2007 we used a different source controlling tool and we faced a lot of issues and with no GUI we had to deal with it using commands which made our life even harder.Initial Setup:TFS, like most Microsoft products, iseasy to install use. The initial setup is very easy, allyou need to know is the basic configurations that need to be applied.Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:We are golden partners of Microsoft in different areas like Portal and Collaboration, and we are currently targeting the golden partnership in Application Development

Date published: 2015-08-12

Rated 4 out of 5 by Bryan Fehl from It's kept our code organized so that our developers aren't stepping on each other's code, but the interface requires new team members to spend a few weeks to get accustomed to it.Valuable Features:* Change control* Collaboration* Change historyImprovements to My Organization:TFS has allowed our development team to function better as a group, by keeping code organized, and making it easier to prevent people from stepping on each other's code.Room for Improvement:The interface needs work. As it is, it takes a few weeks to get new team members used to using it.Use of Solution:I've used it for two years.Deployment Issues:No issues encountered.Stability Issues:No issues encountered.Scalability Issues:No issues encountered.Previous Solutions:We used GIT, and we switched because TFS was easier to use and maintain.Initial Setup:It was straightforward.Implementation Team:We did it in-house.Cost and Licensing Advice:We are currently using the free version.Other Solutions Considered:We also lookeed at GIT.Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

Date published: 2015-08-06

Rated 5 out of 5 by Chaminda Chandrasekara from It's streamlined our software development process, but there were deployment issues at times.Valuable Features:* Agile project management* Requirements management* Team management* Source code management* Testing software* Deployment and test automationImprovements to My Organization:* Reduced cost of software implementation and testing processes by automation* Streamlined the software development process so that we could deliver high quality software in short time to the marketUse of Solution:I've been using it for five to six years.Deployment Issues:Sometimes, but Microsoft support was always awesome.Stability Issues:No issues encountered.Scalability Issues:No issues encountered.Customer Service:It's superb.Technical Support:It's superb.Initial Setup:It is simple and well documented.Implementation Team:We did it in-house.Other Solutions Considered:Just go for it. It is amazing.Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.